One of the large themes of the movie is communication or lack there of. The most memorable example of this is when the troop meet up with the wrong private Ryan and wrongly inform him that his brothers have been killed in combat. However, the theme is apparent right at the beginning. The landing is not well coordinated and when Miller tries to contact his superiors the radio operator and radio are shot up. As for the mission itself, although the meaningfulness is apparent to those in command, they are unable communicate the reasonableness of the mission to Miller and his troop. In their minds, “the mission is serious misallocation of valuable military resources.” To them, it makes no sense to send the eight of them to save Ryan accept in so far as a “public relations” ploy. Adding to the mix is the presence of Corporal Upham, who despite having the express desire to write about the commutative bond that develops between fighting men, does not have the first idea how converse with the others in the troop.

One result of this lack of communication is Captain Miller is unable to maintain discipline. Unmoved moved by comments like “we are not here to do the decent thing. We are here to follow fucking orders.”, the men, most notably Reiban, regularly disobey orders. Things finally come to a head with the death of Wade. Disgusted that Miller would allow a German prisoner to go free, Reiban threatens to walk out on the unit and soon after finds himself looking down the barrel of Sgt. Horvath?s gun (Sizemore). Before things could be taken any further Miller intervenes. Revealing what he did back home, Miller begins an extended monologue about how the war has changed him and how by saving Ryan he can reverse the process. “Back home I tell people what I do and they say, well it figures. But over here it is a big mystery. So, I guess I changed some. Sometimes I wonder if I changed so much my wife is even going to recognize me when ever it is I get back to her? If going to Romel and finding him [(Ryan)] so he can go home if that earns me the right to get back to my wife well that is my mission.  [All I know is] the more men I kill, the further away from home I feel.”

What Miller’s monologue does is it gives meaning in an existential way not only to mission, but to the deaths of Wade, Caparzo (Diesel). Indeed, if you recall Caparzo died trying to save a little girl that looked just like his niece back home and Wade literally died carrying Caparzo’s message of home. Later Miller will die trying to delivery Ryan home so, as stated above, he could get home. As for Sgt. Horvath, when Miller begins to have renewed doubts after Ryan refuses to abandon his company, Horvath reminds Miller of his own words. If they abandoned Ryan and if they were to make it home, they would not have the wherewithal to make sense of this “Whole God awful shitty mess.” Finally, there is, of course, the aged Ryan, who is able make sense of the war, which after all claimed the lives of his brothers, by remembering the sacrifice of Captain Miller.